Bali Nine Executions: Andrew Chan’s Final Moment of Love

SMILING with pure joy, this is the moment Andrew Chan wed his sweetheart Febyanti Herewila. 
 
With just one day to live, in front of a close-knit group of family and friends inside Nusakambangan, Chan slipped a ring onto the finger of his sweetheart.

Despite knowing they would have only precious hours as a married couple, they wanted to marry before his life was taken.

Final request ... Andrew Chan at his wedding to Febyanti Herewila a day before he was executed.
Salvation Army Minister David Soper, who spent the last hours with Chan before he was executed, had married them.
The event had been filmed and photographed by officials from the Attorney-General’s and prosecutions office who have spent the past three days documenting the condemned nine people, including Chan and Sukumaran.
The Chan and Sukumaran families were not allowed to take any last photographs of their loved ones and were dismayed to learn that the images of the very private wedding had been leaked to Indonesia’s TV One network.
So too were a series of photographs of the men’s last days.
The couple’s wedding — a rare moment of joy on the bleakest of days — was announced by his older brother Michael.
“It is a tough time but it is a happy time at the same time,” Michael said of the moment of rare happiness.
Speaking after the wedding, Michael added: “Andrew had a special day today, Feby and Andrew have had a bit of a celebration this evening and it was celebrated with family and close friends”.
“It was an enjoyable moment; they’re married.”
The couple were required to get permission from prison authorities in order to marry in the jail.
Chan and Feby, a fellow pastor, were engaged in February in Bali’s Kerobokan prison, after Chan learned his clemency had been rejected and he was set to die.


 At the time, Feby told The Daily Telegraph: “Andrew is one of the strongest, kindest people I have ever met.”
Feby said her love for Chan was not borne out of any kind of pity.
“I love him for who he is. And I see what he does for other people and that makes me love him more,” Feby said.
“If you ask me why do I love him, it’s because he also has weaknesses as well but he also has a lot of good things about him. I accept him the way he is. I am also very proud of him.”
Indonesia’s Attorney-General HM Prasetyo seemed to indicate a lack of empathy for Chan’s plight.
He said he agreed to fulfil Chan’s request to wed before his execution, even though he thought it was a joke.
“There was a request from Andrew Chan, I thought it as a joke. He has been isolated, so I think it was a joke but we will fulfill it,” he said.

Unfair Executions

Wrongful execution is a miscarriage of justice occurring when an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment, the "death penalty." Cases of wrongful execution are cited as an argument by opponents of capital punishment, while proponents suggest that the argument of innocence concerns the credibility of the justice system as a whole and does not solely undermine the use of death penalty.

 

A number of people are claimed to have been innocent victims of the death penalty. Newly available DNA evidence has allowed the exoneration and release of more than 17 death row inmates since 1992 in the United States, but DNA evidence is available in only a fraction of capital cases. Others have been released on the basis of weak cases against them, sometimes involving prosecutorial misconduct; resulting in acquittal at retrial, charges dropped, or innocence-based pardons. The Death Penalty Information Center (U.S.) has published a list of 10 inmates "executed but possibly innocent". At least 39 executions are claimed to have been carried out in the U.S. in the face of evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt.

 

In the UK, reviews prompted by the Criminal Cases Review Commission have resulted in one pardon and three exonerations for people executed between 1950 and 1953 (when the execution rate in England and Wales averaged 17 per year), with compensation being paid.

 

Colin Campbell Ross was hanged in Melbourne in 1922 for the murder of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke the previous year in what became known as the Gun Alley Murder. The case was re-examined in the 1990s using modern techniques and Ross was eventually pardoned in 2008.

People's Republic of China

 

Weiqing An (Chinese: 魏清安, ?–1984, 23 years old) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for the rape of Kun Liu, a woman who had disappeared. The execution was carried out on 3 May 1984 by the Intermediate People's court. In the next month, Tian Yuxiu (田玉修) was arrested and admitted that he had committed the rape. Three years later, Wei was officially declared innocent.

 

Teng Xingshan (Chinese: 滕兴善, ?–1989) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for supposedly having raped, robbed and murdered Shi Xiaorong (石小荣), a woman who had disappeared. An old man found a dismembered body, and incompetent police forensics claimed to have matched the body to the photo of the missing Shi Xiaorong. The execution was carried out on 28 January 1989 by the Huaihua Intermediate People's court. In 1993, the previously missing woman returned to the village, saying she had been kidnapped to Shandong. The absolute innocence of the wrongfully executed Teng was not admitted until 2005.

 

Nie Shubin (Chinese: 聂树斌, 1974–1995) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for the rape and murder of Kang Juhua (康菊花), a woman in her thirties. The execution was carried out on April 27, 1995 by the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's court. In 2005, ten years after the execution, Wang Shujin (Chinese: 王书金) admitted to the police that, in fact, he had committed the murder.

 

Qoγsiletu (Mongolian:qoγsiletu, Chinese:呼格吉勒图, 1977-1996) was an Inner Mongolian who was executed for the rape and murder of a young girl on June 10, 1996. On December 5, 2006, ten years after the execution, Zhao Zhihong (Chinese: 赵志红) wrote the Petition of my Death Penalty admitting that, in fact, he had committed the crime.

 

Jiang Guoqing (Chinese: 江國慶, 1975–1997) was a Taiwanese soldier who was executed by a military tribunal on August 13, 1997 for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl. On January 28, 2011, over 13 years after the execution, Xu Rongzhou (Chinese: 許榮洲) admitted to the prosecutor that he had been responsible for the crime.

 

In 1660, in a series of events known as the Campden Wonder, an Englishman named William Harrison disappeared after going on a walk, near the village of Charingworth, in Gloucestershire. Some of his clothing was found slashed and bloody on the side of a local road. Investigators interrogated Harrison’s servant, John Perry, who eventually confessed that his mother and his brother had killed Harrison for money. Perry, his mother, and his brother were hanged. Two years later, Harrison reappeared, telling the incredibly unlikely tale that he had been abducted by three horsemen and sold into slavery in the Ottoman Empire. Though his tale was implausible, he indubitably had not been murdered by the Perry family.

Timothy Evans was tried and executed in 1950 for the murder of his wife and infant daughter. An official inquiry conducted 16 years later determined that it was Evans's fellow tenant, serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie, who was responsible for the murder. Christie also admitted to the murder of Evans's wife, as well as five other women and his own wife. Christie may have murdered other women, judging by evidence found in his possession at the time of his arrest, but it was never pursued by the police. Evans was posthumously pardoned in 1966. The case had prompted the abolition of capital punishment in the UK in 1965.

Mahmood Hussein Mattan was executed in 1952 for the murder of Lily Volpert. In 1998 the Court of Appeal decided that the original case was, in the words of Lord Justice Rose, "demonstrably flawed". The family were awarded £725,000 compensation, to be shared equally among Mattan's wife and three children. The compensation was the first award to a family for a person wrongfully hanged.
Derek Bentley was a mentally challenged young man who was executed in 1953. He was convicted of the murder of a police officer during an attempted robbery, despite the facts that it was his accomplice who fired the gun and that Bentley was already under arrest at the time of the shooting. The accomplice who actually fired the fatal shot could not be executed due to his young age.

 

University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross led a team of experts in the law and in statistics that estimated the likely number of unjust convictions. The study determined that at least 4% of people on death row were and are innocent. The research was peer reviewed and the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published it, Gross has no doubt that some innocent people have been executed.

 

Statistics likely understate the actual problem of wrongful convictions because once an execution has occurred there is often insufficient motivation and finance to keep a case open, and it becomes unlikely at that point that the miscarriage of justice will ever be exposed. In the case of Joseph Roger O'Dell III, executed in Virginia in 1997 for a rape and murder, a prosecuting attorney argued in court in 1998 that if posthumous DNA results exonerated O'Dell, "it would be shouted from the rooftops that ... Virginia executed an innocent man." The state prevailed, and the evidence was destroyed.

 

Chipita Rodriguez was hanged in San Patricio County, Texas in 1863 for murdering a horse trader, and 122 years later, the Texas Legislature passed a resolution exonerating her.

 

Thomas and Meeks Griffin were executed in 1915 for the murder of a man involved in an interracial affair two years previously but were pardoned 94 years after execution. It is thought that they were arrested and charged because they were viewed as wealthy enough to hire competent legal counsel and get an acquittal.

 

Joe Arridy (April 15, 1915 – January 6, 1939) was a mentally disabled American man executed for rape and murder and posthumously granted a pardon. Arridy was sentenced to death for the murder and rape of a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Pueblo, Colorado. He confessed to murdering the girl and assaulting her sister. Due to the sensational nature of the crime precautions were taken to keep him from being hanged by vigilante justice. His sentence was executed after multiple stays on January 6, 1939, in the Colorado gas chamber in the state penitentiary in Canon City, Colorado. Arridy was the first Colorado prisoner posthumously pardoned in January 2011 by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a former district attorney, after research had shown that Arridy was very likely not in Pueblo when the crime happened and had been coerced into confessing. Among other things, Arridy had an IQ of 46, which was equal to the mental age of a 6-year-old. He did not even understand that he was going to be executed, and played with a toy train that the warden, Warden Roy Best, had given to him as a present. A man named Frank Aguilar had been executed in 1937 in the Colorado gas chamber for the same crime for which Arridy ended up also being executed. Arridy's posthumous pardon in 2011 was the first such pardon in Colorado history. A press release from the governor's office stated, "[A]n overwhelming body of evidence indicates the 23-year-old Arridy was innocent, including false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else." The governor also pointed to Arridy's intellectual disabilities. The governor said, “Granting a posthumous pardon is an extraordinary remedy. But the tragic conviction of Mr. Arridy and his subsequent execution on Jan. 6, 1939, merit such relief based on the great likelihood that Mr. Arridy was, in fact, innocent of the crime for which he was executed, and his severe mental disability at the time of his trial and execution."

 

George Stinney, a 12-year old black boy, was electrocuted in South Carolina in 1944 for the murder of two white girls, aged 7 and 11. He was the youngest person executed in the United States. More than 70 years later, a judge threw out the conviction, calling it a "great injustice."

 

Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in December 1989. Subsequent investigations cast strong doubt upon DeLuna's guilt for the murder of which he had been convicted.

 

Jesse Tafero was convicted of murder and executed via electric chair in May 1990 in the state of Florida for the murders of two Florida Highway Patrol officers. The conviction of a co-defendant was overturned in 1992 after a recreation of the crime scene indicated a third person had committed the murders.

 

Johnny Garrett of Texas was executed in February 1992 for allegedly raping and murdering a nun. In March 2004 cold-case DNA testing identified Leoncio Rueda as the rapist and murderer of another elderly victim killed four months earlier. Immediately following the nun's murder, prosecutors and police were certain the two cases were committed by the same assailant. The flawed case is explored in a 2008 documentary entitled The Last Word.

 

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in February 2004 for murdering his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, Texas. Nationally known fire investigator Gerald Hurst reviewed the case documents, including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene, and said in December 2004 that "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire." In 2010, the Innocence Project filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, seeking a judgment of "official oppression".

 

In 2015, the Justice Department and the FBI formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an FBI forensic squad overstated forensic hair matches for two decades before the year 2000. 26 out of 28 forensic examiners overstated evidence of forensic hair matches in 268 trials reviewed, and 95% of the overstatements favored the prosecution. Those cases involve 32 cases in which defendants were sentenced to death.

 

Dil Shova Shrestha - Mother of all infants, orphans and old people.

कुन मन्दिर मा जान्छौ यात्री, कुन मन्दिर मा जाने हो कुना सामाग्री पूजा गर्ने, साथ कसरी लाने हो कुन मन्दिर मा जान्छौ यात्री । । । हाडहरुको सुन्दर खाएमबिए, माम्स पिन्डको दिवार मस्तिस्क को सुन्को छाना, इन्द्रीयहरुको द्वार लता नदी का तरल तरङ्ग, मन्दिर आफु अपार । । । । । कुन मन्दिर मा जान्छौ यात्री । । । । । तती यात्री बिच सडकमा, ईश्वर हेर्दाछ साथ चुम्दछ ईश्वर काम सुनौला, गरी रहेको हाथ चुन्छ कि लक्ष्मी करले उस्ले, देबताहरुको माझ । । । । कुन मदिरा म जान्छौ यात्री । । । । पर्ख पर्ख हे जाउ समाउ, मानीसहरुको पाउ मलम लगाउ आर्तहरुको, चहर्याइरहेको घाउ मानीसहरु भई ईश्वरको त्यो, दिव्य मुहार हसाउ । । । कुन मन्दिर म जान्छौ यात्री । । । ।

सडक किनारा गाउछ ईश्वर, चराहरुको तनमा बोल्दछ ईश्वर मानिसहरुको, पिडा दुखेको गणमा दर्शन के देउ कही हृदयमा, चारमा चच्छुले तनमा । । । । कुन मन्दिर मा जान्छौ यात्री, कुन मन्दिर मा जाने हो कुना सामाग्री पूजा गर्ने, साथ कसरी लाने हो कुन मन्दिर मा जान्छौ यात्री । । । कुन मन्दिर मा जान्छौ यात्री । । । । Contact Details: 9841702176 4274730 4670165

Wife gives Husband a precious gift for Silver Wedding anniversary - One of her Kidneys

A wife gave her husband a silver wedding anniversary gift worth far more than any trinket or keepsake - one of her own kidneys. Nigel Bryant, 50, used to undergo punishing four-hour dialysis sessions three times a week at home in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. But his life was transformed after his wife Nicola, 48, offered him her kidney. Tests revealed the couple were a surprisingly good match and went under the knife in March.
'It was a fantastic way to make a difference to Nigel’s life,' Mrs Bryant said.
'It was our silver wedding anniversary last month and I wanted to do anything I could to make his life better.'
It’s still early days and Nigel has regular check-ups, but it’s made a positive difference.'He can eat more freely and has the time away from the dialysis machine - and the energy - to do things. It has benefited our whole family.' Project manager Nigel’s health problems began in 1993 when he was diagnosed with the bowel disorder Crohn’s disease.He was diagnosed with renal failure in 2007 and staff at Heartlands Hospital’s Castle Vale Renal Unit suggested Nicola might be able to donate a kidney.

The couple - parents to Charlotte, 16, and Sam, 18 - had the operation at Coventry’s Walsgrave Hospital in March. Nigel said: 'It’s given me a new lease of life not being tied to the dialysis machine. 'I was worried about doing it at first because of the risk to Nicola, but she was determined to go ahead and it was the best way forward in the end. 'It’s difficult for me to thank her - how do you say thanks for something like this? It’s probably the biggest commitment someone could make for someone else.'




Nicola, a business development manager at Birmingham City Council, said: 'It wasn’t a difficult decision. The thing with donating a kidney is that you choose when to have the operation. That was important as our children are at important stages of their education.

If anything, had I known I could have done it earlier then I would have.' Karen Hodgson, live donor transplant co-ordinator at Heartlands Hospital, said: 'Donating a kidney is a major decision but living donation is on the increase in the UK. 'There is no guarantee a kidney transplant will work. However, living donation is overwhelmingly successful with 96 per cent working well in one year. 'There are more than 7,531 people in the UK currently needing an organ transplant of some kind. Only 33 per cent of people in the UK have joined the Organ Donation Register which is why it is so important to join the register and inform your family and friends of your wishes.'



(Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2176482/Mother-receives-life-saving-kidney-transplant-family-friend-secretly-puts-donor.html?ito=feeds-newsxml)

The Tenerife Disaster - 27th March 1977

A map showing the location of the Canary Islands, off Africa's west coast. Spain's Canary Islands are situated 250 nautical miles off the Moroccan coast of North Africa. They have, for many years, been a popular tourist attraction for people wanting the best of weather any time of the year. Ancient Greek and Roman seafarers knew them as the"Fortunates Isles." Tenerife these days is served mainly by the airport in the south of the island, known as Reina Sofia, but years ago the Island was served by the airport up in the north of the island, known as Los Rodeos. Los Rodeos is still used today, but mainly only for domestic flights around the islands, or for cargo flights. The events leading up to this accident started on the Island of Las Palmas, which is also part of the Canary Islands.
Sunday March 27, 1977 should have been no different than any other spring day at Las Palmas Airport, with the usual flights
operating from all over Europe and the Atlantic. But at 1:15 that afternoon, the passenger terminal was thrown in to chaos and panic after a small bomb planted by a terrorist

exploded in a florist's shop in the terminal concourse. The authorities were warned of this fifteen minutes prior, so although the bomb caused much damage to the building, no one was killed. 8 people, however, were injured, one seriously.


Telephoning the Spanish airport administration afterwa

rds, a spokesman for a militant Canary Islands independence group, speaking from Algeria in north Africa, claimed responsibility for the explosion and hinted that a second

bomb was planted somewhere in the airport. On hearing this, the local police had no option but to close the airport and not to take any further chances, pending a thorough search for the second device. All international incoming flights were then diverted to Tenerife's Los Rodeos Airport, which was less than one hour of flying time away.

KLM Boeing 747-206B PH-BUF Rijn (Rhine River)

The wreckage of KLM Boeing 747 PH-BUF. (File Photo) Among the flights to

be diverted was a charter trip flown by KLM's Boeing 747, PH-BUF. Operated by KLM as Flight KL4805 on behalf of the Holland International Travel Group, it had departed Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport that morning at 9:31 a.m. local time, carrying 234 passengers escaping the harsh cold winters of Northern Europe for the sunny climates of the Canary Islands. They included 3 babies and 48 children. Most were Dutch, but there were also two Australians, four Germans, and two Americans on the flight.
In command of 4805 was Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, KLM's chief training Captain for Boeing 747s. Van Zanten had been flying since 1947, and had been a pilot with KLM since 1951, when as a 24 year old, he commenced duty as a first officer on the company DC-3s. He now had nearly 12,000 hours experience, with more than 1500 hours on the Boeing 747. Most of his time, however, was spent in simulators training other pilots.
After its four-hour trip from Amsterdam, across Belguim, France and Spain, PH-BUF touched down at Los Rodeos Airport at 1340 hrs GMT (1:10 p.m .local time). The fabled Canary Islands failed to live up to its reputation for fine weather, as those on board the KLM 747 were

greeted with the sight of low cloud sand light rain, and light fog looming over the airport in the distance.

The apron area, together with a section of the taxiway, was already occupied by diverted aircraft, so on landing, the controller directed the 747 to vacate the runway via the last intersecting taxiway and to park their aircraft on the holding area next to a Norwegian Boeing 737. Shortly afterwards a DanAir 727 and a Sata DC-8 landed and were both directed to park in the same area.

Pan American Boeing 747-121 N736PA (Clipper Victor)

At 1:45 pm local time (a little more than a half hour after the arrival of PH-BUF) the Pan American 747 landed and taxied to the same holding area, parking directly behind the KLM 747. N736PA, flight number PA 736 had orginated in Los Angeles, where 364 passengers, most of them of retirement age, had boarded "Clipper Victor" for the first stage of a charter flight to Gran Canaria. Here they would join the Royal Cruise Line's ship "Golden Odyssey" for a twelve

day Mediterannean Highlights cruise. Departing LAX late the previous afternoon ,they had flown direct to Kennedy Airport in New York. The aircraft was refuelled, 14 additional passengers boarded, and there was a change of crew. After 90 minutes on the ground, the aircraft took off for Las Palmas. On approaching the Canaries six hours later the crew were informed of the temporary closure of the airport and diverted to Tenerife's Los Rodeos airport.

This was unwelcome news to the crew, who had already been on duty for eight hours. The diversion would just add more hours to the trip, and there were also the passengers to consider - most of them had aleady been on the aircraft for 13 hours as it was. Many were tired and the majority of them were no longer young ,so it was taking a greater toll on them. The Pan Am Captain, Victor Grubbs, a 57 year old, 21,000 hour pilot sensed from the Spanish air traffic controller's instructions that Las Palmas was expecting to reopen before long and, knowing that his aircraft had more than adequate fuel reserves, asked to possibly be put in a holding pattern until it did open. His requests were denied and therefore N736PA had to land and join the rest of the waiting aircraft on the ground at Los Rodeos.




By the time the two aircraft were ready to depart the weather had deteriorated somewhat to the fact that there was a good deal of thick fog descending on to the airport.

At first the KLM passengers were not allowed to leave the aircraft, but after about twenty minutes they were all transported to the terminal building by bus. On alighting from the bus, they received cards identifying them as passengers in transit on Flight KL4805. Later, all the passengers boarded KLM 4805 except the H.I.N.T. Company guide, who remained in Tenerife. The Pan Am passengers stayed on their aircraft the whole time it was on the ground, only the doors being opened for them to get some fresh air and to take some photographs of what scenery they could see from the aircraft.

When Las Palmas Airport was opened to traffic once more, the PA1736 crew prepared to proceed to Las Palmas, which was the flight's planned destination.

When they attempted to taxi on the taxiway leading to runway 12, where they had been parked with four other aircraft on account of the congestion caused by the number of flights diverted to Tenerife, they discovered that it was blocked by KLM Boeing 747, Flight 4805, which was located between PA 1736 and the entrance to the active runway. The First Officer and the Flight Engineer left the aircraft and measured the clearance left by the KLM aircraft, reaching the conclusion that it was insufficient to allow PA1736 to pass by, obliging them to wait until the former had started to taxi.
A diagram showing the orientation of runways and taxiways at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, as well as the location of the debris field following he accident. Click for a larger view. KLM 4805 called the tower at 16:56 requesting permission to taxi. It was authorized to do so and at 16:58 requested to backtrack on runway 12 for takeoff on runway 30. The tower controller first cleared the KLM flight to taxi to the holding point for runway 30 by taxiing down the main runway and leaving it by the (third) taxiway to its left. KLM 4805 acknowledged receipt of this message from the tower, stating that it was at that moment taxiing on the runway, which it would leave by the first taxiway in order to proceed to the approach end of runway 30. The tower controller immediately issued an amended clearance, instructing it to continue to taxi to the end of the runway, where it should proceed to backtrack. The KLM flight confirmed that it had received the message, that it would backtrack, and that it was taxiing down the main runway. The tower signalled its approval, whereupon KLM 4805 immediately asked the tower again if what they had asked it to do was to turn left on taxiway one. The tower replied in the negative and repeated that it should continue on to the end of the runway and then backtrack.

Finally, at 16:59, KLM 4805 replied, "O.K., sir." At 17:02, the PA aircraft called the tower to request confirmation that it should taxi down the runway. The tower controller confirmed this, also adding that they should leave the runway by the third taxiway to their left. At 17:03:00, in reply to the tower controller's query to KLM 4805 as to how many runway exits they had passed, the latter confirmed that at that moment they were passing by taxiway C-4. The tower controller told KLM 4805, "O.K., at the end of the runway make one eighty and report ready for ATC clearance."


Advertisement In response to a query from KLM 4805, the tower controller advised both aircraft that the runway centerline lights were out of service. The controller also reiterated to PA1736 that they were to leave the main runway via the third taxiway to their left and that they should report leaving the runway.

As the Pan American aircraft approached its turnoff in the thick fog, the First Officer noticed the landing lights of the KLM aircraft looming through the fog. At first, they appeared stationary, but as several seconds passed, it became obvious that they were shaking. First Officer Bragg yelled to the Captain "Get off, get off!" at which point full power was applied and the Captain turned the aircraft left towards the grass. Captain van Zanten on the KLM aircraft desperately tried to rotate and climb out before the Pan Am aircraft, as was evidenced by a 3-foot deep gash in the runway from the aircraft's tail.

The KLM aircraft collided with the Pan Am airplane just after liftoff, and proceeded to climb to approximately 100 feet before losing control and crashing. The Pan Am aircraft immediately burst into flames and broke into several pieces.

There were no eyewitnesses to the collision.

Place of accident:

The accident took place on the runway of Tenerife Airport (Los Rodeos) at latitude 28° 28' 30" N and longitude 16° 19' 50" W. The field elevation is 2,073 feet (632 m).

Injuries and Fatalities to persons aboard KLM4805:

None of the 234 passengers and 14 crew survived the accident.

Damage to KLM Boeing 747 PH-BUF:

The aircraft lifted off briefly before the collision with the Pan Am aircraft, but due to severe damage caused on impact, fell back to the runway 250 yards after impact. The aircraft was totally destroyed by fire.

Injuries and Fatalities to persons aboard PA1736:

Of the 16 crew on board, there were 9 fatalities, 7 survivors + 2 company employees who were sitting in the cockpit jump seats. Of the 317 passengers on board, 61 survived the accident ,but 9 died of their injuries at a later date.

Damage to Pan Am Boeing 747 N736PA:

The aircraft was written off in the accident due to the severe impact caused by the KLM aircraft, and the resulting fire. Between 15 and 20 tons of Kerosene was later recovered from the one remaining wing that survived the fire.

Accident Investigation:

There were many questions regarding the cause of this accident:

1. Why had Captain van Zanten commenced take off with out the ATC clearance to do so?

2. Why had Captain Grubbs been instructed to vacate the runway at taxi way 3, which would have taken him back towards the main apron, and not T4 which would have put him on the holding point for runway 30?

3. Why did the KLM crew not grasp the significance of the Pan Am aircraft's report that it had not yet cleared the runway, and would report again to the tower when it did?

The final accident report found that Jacob Van Zanten was solely responsible for the accident. The fundamental factors in the development of the accident were the facts that van Zanten:

- Took off without being cleared to do so.
- Did not heed the air traffic controller's instruction to stand by for take off.
- Did not abandon take off when he knew the Pan Am aircraft was still taxiing.